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Version: v6

Setup Title Picture

Pro tip

Use the Pop CLI for ink! smart contract development with the greatest developer experience.

Setup

On this page we describe the pre-requisites for working with ink!.

Rust & Cargo​

A pre-requisite for compiling smart contracts is to install a stable Rust version (>= 1.88) and cargo. Please see the official Rust installation guide.

Tooling​

Install cargo-contract, a CLI tool for setting up and managing ink! smart contracts:

cargo install --force --locked --tag v6.0.0-alpha.4 --git https://github.com/use-ink/cargo-contract

Make sure you have the latest stable version of Rust installed:

rustup update stable

ink-node​

The ink-node is a simple Polkadot SDK blockchain with smart contract functionality. It's a comfortable option for local development and testing.

There are two ways of installing the node:

(1) Download the Binary​

Go to the ink-node releases page. Under Assets of the latest release, download the appropriate binary for your platform:

  • Linux (ARM64): ink-node-linux-arm64.tar.gz
  • Linux (x86): ink-node-linux.tar.gz
  • macOS: ink-node-mac-universal.tar.gz

Make the binary executable:

chmod +x ./ink-node

For macOS users: When you first try to run ink-node, macOS may show a security warning.

To allow the binary to run:

  1. Click the question mark (?) icon at the right top corner of the warning.
  2. Follow the Apple instructions that appear.
  3. Try running ink-node again and click "Open Anyway" when prompted.

To confirm that ink-node is working correctly, run:

./ink-node --version

If you see version information, your installation is successful!

(2) Install or Build it yourself​

Alternatively, you can build the node by yourself. This can take a while though!

The build instructions and pre-requisites can be found here.